Black Leopards fire Kerjean

Date: 12 August 2005 By: Frank Mavhungu

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THOHOYANDOU – Mr Jean Yves Kerjean, who has been the Black Leopards’ coach for the past month, is a jobless man. He was fired after the team’s defeat in their first PSL match against Orlando Pirates on Saturday.

The Frenchman entered into a one-year contract with the Thohoyandou outfit towards the end of June.

Everything looked fine until Black Leopards played their first league match last Saturday evening. Lidoda duvha spent most of their time defending as if they were leading.

To make matters worse, they remained stuck in their own half, even after the “Buccaneers” were reduced to ten men after their playmaker, Bennedict Vilakazi, was given his marching orders. The home side finally scored a goal that saw them collect maximum points in the match despite the setback.

The management of Leopards was not happy with the pattern that was used in the match. They revealed this by sacking Kerjean and one of his assistants, Solly Luvhengo, during a special meeting that was held later that evening.

According to the club’s brand manager, Tshifhiwa Thidiela, the team’s future was looking bleak under the guidance of Kerjean. Thidiela further argued that their 0-1 defeat at the hands of Mamelodi Sundowns in their Telkom Charity Cup match was the result of Kerjean’s poor coaching.

Kerjean’s second assistant coach, Mr Reginald “Power” Matlokga, was appointed as the caretaker coach until the appointment of the new head coach comes into effect. Matlokga will be responsible for the team, together with Congolese Kalambay Mutombo, who was recently appointed the team manager.

Kerjean was the third coach to guide Black Leopards within a period of twelve months. The former Bafana Bafana coach, Mr Shakes Mashaba, was dismissed towards the end of last season following a string of poor results. His assistant, Jacob Sakala, took over until the end of the season.

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Frank Mavhungu

Frank is a Human Resources Manager at the Department of Public Works in Limpopo. He is the longest serving correspondent of the Mirror, having joined us at the end of 1990. He mainly writes sports reports and resides at Tsianda Village. In 2004, Frank won the National Castle League Award, an award for the best reporter in the SAB league in South Africa.

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